The “60 Minutes Sports” documentary on Peyton Manning’s recovery from multiple neck surgeries and his, and Eli Manning’s, relationship with Duke football coach David Cutcliffe, will air Tuesday night on Showtime (10 p.m. ET/PT) for the show’s season premier, and throughout the month.

Cutcliffe was Peyton’s offensive coordinator when the now-Broncos quarterback played at Tennessee, and he was Eli’s head coach at Mississippi. When Peyton underwent four neck surgeries in late 2011 and early 2012, he turned to Cutcliffe for help. The two worked out together at Duke University, where Peyton’s teammates, including Wes Welker, rotated through to help their quarterback get back to form.

The relationship between the Peyton and Cutcliffe runs deep, and it seems to have benefited both on the field. While Peyton is coming off one of the finest NFL seasons in history, Cutcliffe is coming off a 10-win season at Duke, the most in the football program’s history.

Jack Ford, a CBS correspondent who guided the “60 Minutes” documentary, spoke to The Post about his time with the Mannings and Cutcliffe.

(His comments have been edited and condensed.)

How did this documentary come about?
“I’m the CBS News legal analyst, but I’ve done a bunch of sports things over the years, so they asked me to go and do this story for them.

“This one was interesting: I was a college football player – I played in the late ‘60s, early ‘70s. One of the schools I was recruited at was Duke. I was always fascinated how Duke had been so bad in football. Here’s a place that’s exceptional in everything they do, and for the last 30 years — with the exception of the three years that Steve Spurrier was there (1987-89) — they weren’t just bad at football, they were awful at football. It became a graveyard for coaches.

“And David Cutcliffe, who I knew a little bit, took the job six years ago. When he took the job, there was not a single person that he knew, not even a family member, who thought it was a good idea for him to take it. But he did it anyway.

“At the end of his fifth year, Cutcliffe completely resurrected the program. Last year alone, they won 10 games and he was the national coach of the year. It was literally a miraculous turnaround.

“So my thought was, what a great story to tell, about how in college, a really good coach can make an enormous difference. He happens to be not only a great coach, but he’s also a great guy.

“So I talked to Archie Manning, who is one of my good friends – we’re on the board of the College Football Hall of Fame together – and I say, ‘Do you think the boys, Peyton and Eli, would participate in doing this profile of David?’

“Archie talked the boys, and they said, ‘Look, for (David) we’d do anything.’ And then, after talking to Peyton to Eli, it turns out that every year for the last four years they would go to Duke and David Cutcliffe would conduct like a boot camp for them. These are the top quarterbacks in the NFL and he’s working them out like they’re junior high school players. In addition to that, Peyton, I’m told pretty much for the first time on television, goes into this unbelievable detail about how David Cutcliffe literally resurrected his career, and actually had to teach him how to throw the football again.

“David Cutcliffe had to take, arguably, the best player in the NFL and teach him how to throw a ball again.”Read more…

Sam, who cleared waivers on Sunday after being released by the Rams, would be the first openly gay NFL player if the Cowboys sign him. The free agent defensive end was a seventh-round pick by the Rams and recorded 2.5 sacks during the preseason while leading St. Louis with six tackles in its preseason finale, a loss to the Dolphins.

Per Rapaport, the Cowboys spent Tuesday calling their players to gauge their reaction to signing Sam.

Kevin Vickerson visited the Bengals on Tuesday and took a physical. (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)

Kevin Vickerson, a starting Broncos’ defensive tackle since the start of the 2010 season until he was released Saturday, visited the Cincinnati Bengals on Tuesday and took a physical.

The Bengals, however, will not sign Vickerson this week, according to an NFL source. Possibly next week. Any vested veteran (four years or more of NFL service time) who is on a team’s season-opening roster automatically has his full-season salary guaranteed.

Vickerson is 31 and coming off a dislocated hip injury, which presents enough question mark for a team to minimize its risk.

But I would say this to the Bengals: Before he got hurt in game 11 last season at New England, Vickerson was the Broncos’ best defensive lineman. Tackle, end, nose guard or otherwise. For a playoff contender, Vickerson is worth waiting on to see if he can regain form.

Mike Klis has been with The Denver Post since 1998, after working 13 years with the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph. Major League Baseball was Klis' initial passion. He started covering the Colorado Rockies after Coors Field was approved for construction in August 1990.

Nicki Jhabvala is the Sports Digital News Editor for The Denver Post. Before arriving in Denver, she spent five years at Sports Illustrated working primarily as its online NBA editor, and she was most recently the overnight home page editor at the New York Times. She has reported regularly on the Broncos since joining the staff.

A published author and award-winning journalist, Benjamin Hochman is a sports columnist for The Denver Post. He previously worked on the staff of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, winners of two Pulitzer Prizes for their Hurricane Katrina coverage.